We had another great scan yesterday at 16 weeks and 1 day, but first, the gender reveal! The video is too long to upload here on my blog so if you want to watch it you can see it on my Facebook page (Bethany Weathersby.) For anyone who just wants to know now without watching the video, we are having our fourth BOY. We were shocked when we heard we were having another boy but now we are feeling really excited about him. Of course, my heart aches for Nora, who will never have a sister here on earth. The news of another brother did break open my Lucy wound again (which happens often) so that has been hard. But we are also very thankful to be given another baby to love and parent. Sometimes I feel like the luckiest person in the world. My mom (who has five kids as well) often says she feels like the richest person in the world when she thinks about her kids and grandkids, and that’s how I’ve been feeling lately- the luckiest, richest person in the world to be given five children.

Yesterday baby’s PSV was consistently 22, which is lower than last week! Using the PSV and the gestational age, that can be calculated to a 1.04 MoM, which is normal and does not indicate anemia. Baby’s heart function looked great, he was super active and of course, there were no signs of fetal hydrops or fluid build up anywhere. Dr. Trevett checked the cord and placenta placement again and it is in the perfect spot for an IUT when it is time to do one. It was kind of hard to get a good picture of baby boy since he was so active and kept kicking and flipping all over the place. Here are a couple of pictures from the ultrasound yesterday.

Dr. Trevett also checked my antibody titer again yesterday. Usually once the titer is critical (4 for Kell and 16 for the other antibodies) there isn’t much need to continue checking the titer since the baby is being checked every week with MCA scans (or SHOULD be checked every week with MCA scans.) Remember, the titer just tells you “how many sharks are in the water with your baby” and the MCA scan tells you “whether your baby is being attacked by the sharks and to what extent.” In my case my antibodies are more aggressive than most, and my titer was VERY high at the beginning of the pregnancy. This is why I have been doing plasmapheresis and IVIG to protect the baby until he is far enough along to receive intrauterine blood transfusions. My titer at the beginning of the pregnancy was 2,048 and after three rounds of plasmapheresis my titer was 128. Three weeks later they checked my titer again and it was 256. The reason they are keeping an eye on my titer is because if it reaches 1,024 or above we will do more plasmapheresis treatments to try to bring it down. Yesterday my titer was back down to 128, which is amazing news! I don’t know why it went down but as Dr. Moise said, no need to argue with success. I was expecting it to be much higher but for some reason it isn’t bouncing back up to the thousands.

Dr. Trevett and I also discussed Coronavirus scenarios (at my request, of course) and he said that if I get the Coronavirus, he will continue to treat me as usual, just completely covered in protective gear from head to toe. If he gets the Coronavirus he has to be isolated and won’t be able to treat me. In that case, I will drive to Houston and be treated by Dr. Moise. Hopefully we will be able to avoid the virus but it still makes me feel more confident just having a tentative plan in place.

Since my appointment yesterday I have finally allowed myself to hope that we might actually be able to bring this baby home alive one day. I’m only 16 weeks, so we still have a long way to go, but each week that passes without intervention is such a gift. Each week brings baby’s survival rate up a little more. Again, I feel like the luckiest, richest person in the world to be given this chance to have five children, a lifelong dream of mine. I thought my dream of a big family was destroyed along with Lucy in 2013, but somehow here I am pregnant again with a healthy baby boy. My next scan is on Monday at 17 weeks and 1 day. I will update the blog afterwards! Thanks so much for encouraging us and praying for our baby boy.